Which brings us to the First Book of Samuel where we read that at this time the people of Israel go to Samuel, who now leads the nation as did Moses in the role of a judge, and they say to him: “Give us a king to judge us.” God tells Samuel that with this request the people are not rejecting him as their leader but rejecting God Himself. Samuel, following God’s instructions, then warns the people what they can expect from a king:
“He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders…and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become slaves.”
But the people insist; they say: “Nay, but there shall be a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” These last words are the very same words that Moses had said to them as they fearfully watched the Egyptian army pursuing them. “Fear ye not;” Moses had told them, “the Lord will fight for you.” The people, however, no longer put their faith in God but rather in a king.
They have come full circle from an involuntary bondage to a Pharaoh to a voluntary slavery to a king. Samuel selects Saul to be their king, “And all the people shouted, and said: ‘Long live the king.’” Saul was the first in what would become a succession of kings and the establishment of a hereditary monarchy under King David. The Israelites of the Bible did not achieve the necessary maturity as a people to be truly self-governing, I believe, because as individuals they were unable to be with their own human anxiety. Instead, they translated it into the fear of external enemies, and so they devolved into an authoritarian society no longer operating under the rule of law but rather under the rule of a king.
